Ancient Child

Poetry about Incest

By Marcella Bryant

"This difficult and beautiful collection of poetry is about the reconstruction of a shattered life. Like holocaust victims, survivors of incest must re-create the self from a world in which all aspects of civilization have been devastated. 'Ancient Child' should be required reading in every high school and university psychology or child development course."
Holly Hunt Kost, "Small Press Magazine"

"In 'Ancient Child,' we see the victim finally confronting, expressing and working through the horror of her childhood. She flinches from none of it and with her courage to speak out in the form of the powerful, simple, but inescapable poems, she speaks for all such victims who have no voices of their own. It takes an act of courage to read this book; not to shrink from its descriptions and flee from the truth she thrusts in our faces. None of this is for the faint of heart, but all of it is written in such a way as to keep dignity intact with the poet's imposition of the control of art over the unspeakable."
Laurel Speer, "Z Miscellaneous"

ISBN: 0-911051-47-3, 72 pgs., $14.95,